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SPEECH 



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HON. H. S: FOOTE, OF MISSISSIPPI, 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 16, 1848, 
On the Resolution of ITianks to General Taylor. 



Mr. FOOTE said: I was not in my place the 
■other day when tlie discussion of these resolutions 
was in progress, but if I had been, I should liave 
regarded it as unpardonable had I not said something 
in reference to the sentiments which have formed 
the subject of the indignant comments of the hon- 
orable Senator from Kentucky. I am not surprised 
at the course pursued by the Senator from New 
Hampshire, nor can any one who heard his lan- 
guage to-day, be surprised. The whole secret 
of his opposition to the vote of thanks has at last 
discovered itself. He is afraid that the army 
may elect a President. He is afraid that the mili- 
tary excitement of the time may be so potent as 
to thrust some individual into the Presidency who 
haj acquired glory in this war, and in consequence 
of which, a certain distinguished Senator from 
New Hampshire nominated for that very office, 
and who has accepted the nomination, might be 
excluded. It would be quite improper, then, to 
blame the Senator from New Hampshire for the 
course which he has adopted on this occasion. 
The Senator is quite right. He is acting upon the 
principle of enlightened selfishness. The whole 
country will do justice to his motives, and he will 
descend to posterity as the most magnanimous 
statesman of modern times ! I am happy, indeed 
to hear the frank and manly declaration which 
escaped the lips of the Senator from Kentucky — I 
will not say escaped by accident, for it was evi- 
dent that it was the language of his feelings and 
his understanding — the same language which is 
employed by the intelligence and patriotism of the 
people in all parts of the Union, whatever faction 
may have said, in all the accursed forms in which 
faction has arrayed itself before the country. The 
Senator from Kentucky has taken the ground 
boldly that this is a national war — the war of the 
country — a war made by Congress and sanctioned 
in all the forms known to the Constitution, and 
that therefore every patriot in the land is bound to 
sustain it, especially such as are employed in arms 
for the national defence. It is no Presidential 
war, then, as some have asserted. It is no war 
gotten up for unholy and corrupt purposes. It is 
no unconstitutional war as some have argued, but 
it is a war declared by Congress, having every 
sanction that national legislation can give; a war 
which every patriot must sustain in its vigorous 
prosecution up to a glorious termination, and 
which none but traitors anywhere can oppose. I 
speak, of course, within due bounds. I allude 
not to the course of any Senator. I speak but the 
language of history when I say, that in no age 

Printed at the Congressioual Globe Office. 



since civilization began, has there been any name 
for any man who opposed his countiy either in 
thought, word, or deed, when in arms for her 
own defence, except traitor. That is the name 
by which the Senator would be known if he 
dared to act out the sentiments of his heart as 
manifested in the language which he has utter- 
ed to-day. The punishment of treason, in all 
countries, is death; and he who would act out 
these sentiments would incur that as his due re- 
ward. I doubt whether, in some parts of the 
country, the process of law would be waited for; 
and even in some districts of New England, I am 
inclined to think that a coat of tar and feathers, 
or, perhaps, the severer infliction of Lynch law 
would be administered. I am tired and sick of this. 
I have been sufficiently wearied with it at home 
when reading newspaper accounts. I have been 
nauseated with it here. The whole country is 
indignant. There is but one voice on the subject, 
except the small voice that is uttered by an unprin- 
cipled faction in New England. I say an "un- 
principled faction," because it is a party gotten 
up for the purpose of bloodshed, delusion, and 
injustice — a party that cries " peace, peace," when 
the national honor is involved, and the country is 
armed in its defence; a party that cries out, " Let 
us not shed the blood of the poor Mexicans — they 
have suffered enough injustice at our hands; let us 
make indemnity for the wrongs which we have 
perpetrated upon them." 

I should have been very much astonished if a 
different course had been adopted by the Senator 
from New Hampshire. I am not a very diligent 
reader of Abolition newspapers, but looking over 
one or two lately, I perceived that a person named 
Garrison had been indulging in denunciations of 
the Senator from New Hampshire, because, in a 
speech which he had made on this floor, he had 
expressed some regret at being compelled to as- 
sume the character of an Ishmaelite in this body; 
which, by the by, was not exactly the fact till 
now, for though it is true that his hands were 
against every man, yet nobody noticed him. 
However, for that declaration, and for the expres- 
sion of the hope that nothing he had said would 
be regarded as offensive, the Senator from New 
Hampshire had been taken to task by Lloyd Gar- 
rison, who had denounced him as nof being a 
Liberty man; as not worthy of the Presidency; 
and had asserted that his name ought to be stricken 
from the Liberty ticket. Well, the Senator from 
New Hampshire, having of course domestic busi- 
ness which called him to New England, lately 



« 



went thither, and indulged himself in several gusty 
harangues, in order to retrieve his character, and 
revive his claims to the Presidency. His course 
there entirely conciliated the whole Abolition party 
in New England; and with such motives to ener- 
getic action, I am not at all surprised that the Sena- 
tor has returned filled with new zeal and increased 
animosity against this war, and that he should have 
made those rhetorical flourishes in which he has 
so freely displayed himself on this occasion. I 
should have been very much astonished if he had 
pursued any other course. 

I will not detain the Senate long; but for the 
purpose of showing that the Senator is a politic, 
judicious man, and that, though not at all am- 
bitious, he may, perhaps, twenty years hence — 
making capital so rapidly as he does on this great 
question — stand a good chance for the Presidency, 
and is using the most efficient means to improve his 
ultimate popularity, 1 will call attention to a few 
passages in a pamphlet which I have seen for the 
first time this morning. It was sent to me by a 
gentleman who informs me that it is in extensive 
circulation in New England, and is producing an 
extraordinary effect. It seems that it is circulated 
by another party, who are ambitious of obtaining 
the Liberty men as allies. 1 speak by th e-book 
when I say, that a distinguished Senator from New 
England, [Mr. Webster,] not now in his seat, 
did^ in a place not far from Faneuil Hall, some 
months ago, openly recognize the Abolitionists as 
his political brethren, and besought them to unite 
with the Whig party in an approaching election. 
I consider, then, the Whig party of New England 
and the faction controlled by the Senator from 
New Hampshire as standing on the same platform. 
Probably no reply will be attempted to what I say. 
It may be that 1 shall not be deemed worthy of 
notice by the distinguished Senator ovdr the v/ay, 
but that will not prevent me from noticing him — 
courteously and patriotically, I trust — and in such 
a manner as I may think that notice at my hands 
is demanded. Humble as my abilities may be, I 
recognize no superior here, so far as the State 
which I have in part the honor to represent is 
concerned. I am not at all surprised that New 
England should be visited with this pamphlet at 
this time, because the distinguished Senator from 
New England, first in Richmond, in commencing 
his famous southern tour, undertook to call this 
war in question, and afterwards, when he got 
back to New England, held the same language, 
and asserted that it had been the settled judg- 
ment of all nations, that the injustice of a war 
most materially tarnished the lustre of arms. Has 
that been explained? Can it be explained or vin- 
dicated? It means what the Senator from New 
Hampshire has more bodly said, using plainer 
and more explicit language, but language not more 
unpatriotic than that to which I have just refer- 
red-T-language which will not be less fiercely con- 
demned by posterity than that uttered on the oc- 
casion to which I have alluded by one of the most 
celebrated men of the Whig party, whose influence 
has spread itself abroad through all lands, and has 
a most controlling effect in Mexico at the present 
time, against his own country. The same senti- 
ment has been again and again expressed by the 
organ of the Whigs in this city — the National 
Intelligencer. Every Whig paper in the country, 
^■with a few exceptions, has reechoed it; and we 



all recollect the announcement in a certain speech 
delivered here — to which I allude in no spirit 
of unkindness — that if the speaker had been a 
Mexican as he was an American, he would have 
welcomed our armies with bloody hands and hospi- 
table graves. Yet that speech was published, with 
editorial sanction, in almost every Whig paper in the 
country. When on my way hither, last winter, I 
sa\v*in Louisville a Whig paper — the organ of the 
party in that city, the Louisville Journal — which 
eulogized and commended the speech in the warmest 
and mostexalted termsof encomium. Whilst, then, 
there are many men in that party-^a glorious band, 
of whom I am glad to recognize the distinguished 
Senator from Kentucky as the leader, who do re- 
spond to the sentiments which he has expressed 
this morning — patriots in heart and in deed, recog- 
nizing the noble maxim of Roman times, that it is 
a sweet and glorious thing to die for one's country; 
whilst a great number of thp members of the Whig 
party entertain such sentiments, there are many 
others who openly avow, or in their hearts, cherish 
sentiments similar to those I have described, which 
they would dare to act out, if the majority of the 
people would sanction them. In proof o5' what I 
-liave said on this point, I will read a few extracts 
from the pamphlet alluded to, written by a mem- 
ber of the party of which the Senator from New 
Hampshire is the exponent here. It is said that — 

" A rose by any otlioi name would smell as sweet." 
By what name shall I designate the party of which 
the gentleman from New Hampshire is the rep- 
resentative ? Is it the Abolition or Liberty party ? 
However this may be, it is on the shoulders of 
some such party that he expects to be foisted into 
the White House. Oh! may Heaven preserve my 
country from such a calamity as that ! I say it 
with no intention to insult the Senator, but be- 
cause he holds principles which, if carried out, 
would make this republic more infamous on the 
pages of history than any nation that has ever 
existed. The pamphlet is entitled " Dick Crown- 
ingshield, the Assassin, and Zachary Taylor, the 
So'ldier: the diff'erence between them. By Henry 
C. Wright." It is now circulating in New Eng- 
land, under Whig sanction, and is written by a 
member of the Liberty party. 

Mr. HALE. Does the gentleman mean to say 
that the author of that pamphlet is a member of 
the Liberty party ? 

Mr. FOOTE. So I understand. 

Mr. HALE. That individual's career in Eng- 
land and this country is well known. He denies 
the right of all human government whatever; and 
there is no party which he denounces with more 
severity and opprobrium than the Liberty party. 
The honorable Senator from Mississippi is, there- 
fore, mistaken in supposing that he is a member 
of that party. It is not so. The honorable Sen- 
ator asks to what party I belong, and the name of 
that parly. I can tell him in a moment the origin 
of the movement which has made my name some- 
what notorious in New Hampshire in regard to 
the position which I took about four years since. 
I was then a member of the House of Represent- 
atives from the State of New Hampshire. At 
that time, the project of annexation was mooted 
in the House; and the Richmond Enquirer, then 
edited by the present editor of the Union, declared 
that any one expecting anything from the Admin- 
istration must not go against that measure. I did 



not expect anything from the Administration, but 
I opposed the measure; and, in a letter to my con- 
stituents, I announced my intention to vote agninst 
it, assigning the reasons which influenced me in 
the determination. Thereupon, the progressive 
Democracy of New Hampshire came together and 
denounced me; and an issue was at once made in 
that State upon the question. That is the origin 
of the movement; and the Senator is at Uberly to 
give it any name which will best suit iiis classifica- 
tion. But he is entirely mistaken as regards Mr. 
Wright, who is no more a member of the Liberty 
party than that Senator is, and probably looks on 
It with as much loathing as he does. 

Mr. FOOTE. I am very glad to hear that he 
does. This is certainly a redeeming circumstance. 
However, the pamphlet has been circulated by the 
Whigs of New England. The author may then 
be a Whig. 

Mr. HALE. As I stand alone, I have only to 
take care of myself. The Whigs can take care of 
themselves. 

Mr. FOOTE. Well, I do not understand the 
author to be strictly in correspondence with the 
Senator from New Hampshire, or that they are 
inhabitants of the same town or county. Indeed, 
people change their politics so readily nowadays, 
that it would be a little unsafe, perhaps, for the 
Senator to undertake to say what are the present 
political principles of Mr. Wright, with whom he 
13 ashamed to claim any connection. 

Mr. HALE. No, 1 am not. 

Mr. FOOTE. Well, then he is the particular 
friend of the Senator from New Hampshire; and of 
one thing I am certain, that in my State such a 
pamphlet could not be allowed to circulate amongst 
the Whigs for a day. Such language as I am 
about to read, could not be uttered in the State in 
which I have the honor to reside, without hazard 
of life; nor could it, in my opinion, anywhere, 
where a high state of patriotism exists. I wHI now 
read a few delicious extracts from this pamphlet; 
and I hope that, if it be not a Wliig document, 
gentlemen will stop its circulation. The gentle- 
man denies that it is a Liberty document. What 
precise individual has had it circulated I am not 
, prepared to say, but I think that it is perhaps in- 
tended to promote the Senator's claims and those 
of Whig Presidential aspirants generally, always 
excepting General Taylor. 

DICK CROW.NINGSHIELD — HIS EMPLOYERS—HIS BUSINESS. 

Joseph White lived in S.ilrni. He was old and rich. Joe 
and Frank Knapp live(J in the same town. They covoted 
his property, and expected to inherit it at his death. Tlie 
protracted life of Joseph White was considered hy them as 
oppo.5ed to their interests. Thej wished to de.-troy it. They 
called on Dirk Crowninsshield, a young ninn living in Sa- 
lem, who had studied the art of humansbiu^'literat tiie West 
Point Military Academy, and said to him, in substance: 

" Will vou enlist inio our service .'" 

Dick. ""What to do.'" 

Knupps. " We wish to kill Joseph White." 

Dick. " What harm has he done to you .'" 

Knapps. '• None, save that by his life we ai-e kept out of 
{he possession of property which we expect to inherit. We 
have no resources but to kill him." ^ 

Dick. " But he is innocent of all evil intcntinne towards 
you.'" 

tCnapps. " We know he is ; but his life is in our way, and 
we wish to iret rid of him." 

Dick. " But would it be right to kill him ?" 

Knapps. "Give yourself no trouble abi.utth.it. We will 
be responsible for the right or wrong of the deed. If you 
«nlist to do it, you have neJlhing to do will) that ques- 
tion." 

Dick. ^'But suppose I think it mivrde^-V 



TCnapp^. "That is our concern, not yours. If you cnlift 
into our service, we wish you to enlist to do our pleasure, 
even though jou think it to be murder." 
Did:. " Who is to ba heneJUcd by his death .'" 
Knupps. " Ourselves, of course. We do not wish to kill 
him tor his good, but solely for our own." 

Dick. " So, then, 1 am to understand that you wish to en- 
list jne into your si-rvice, to Inll an innocent man, at your iiv- 
sli^'dion, and f^r your benefit ?" 

Knapps. " Tli.1t is our wish. Will you enlist?" 
Dick. " What am 1 ta%et for doing the deed.'" 
Kn.ipp'^. " One thousand dollars." 
Dick. " Do you wish me to kill any others.'" 
Knapps. " Kill this one man, and the money is yours, and 
we will discharge you from our service as soon as the deed 
is done." 

Dick. "Well, I sec no more wrong in enlisting into the 
service of two men to kill o»u', at their bidding and for their 
benefit, than in enlisting into the service of millions, < ailed 
a State, to kill thousanis at their bidding and for their bene- 
fit. So I am at your service, and will e.vecute your pleasure • 
upon Joseph White." 

The Knapps furnished their recruit with a dirk and blud- 
geon. At midnight, he entered the back window with a 
dark lantern, crept up the front stairs, and entered the sleep- 
ing-chamber of Joseph White. He was asleep. Dick struck 
him on his head with a club, then turned down the clothes 
and stabbed him thirteen times in the region of his heart ; 
then covered him up, left the house, hid the bludgeon under 
the door-steps of a church, and melted the dagger. Dick 
and the Knapps were taken up and imprisoned. While 
awaiting their trial, Dick hung himself. The Knapps were 
tried, condemned, and hung. 

What would you call Dick Crowningshield.' A hired 
ASSASSIN is the answer; and all will insist that this is the 
only phrase in the Engli^h language that can truly designate 
his character and position. What would you call the 
Knapps.' The instigators and prime movers in the deed — 
the KMi'LOYERs OF A HIRED ASSASSIN. The relation between 
Crowningshield and the Knapps was that of a hired assassin 
to bis employers. The community would not endure the 
presence of the employers or the employed among tliem,and 
they put them all to deatli, 

ZACHARY TAYLOR — HIS EMPLOYERS — HIS BUSINESS. 

There is a town in Me.xieo called Monterey. It contains 
say twenty thousand inhabitants, more or less. They never 
injured the people of the United States, even in thought; yet 
tlieir existence is opposed to their ambition, and lustof uold, 
and of oppression. They wish to destroy the town of Mon- 
terey. So, those who compose the United States, through 
their agents, the recruiting ollicers, go forth to enlist men 
into their service. They meet Zaciiary Taylor, and ask him, 
ill substance: 

'• Will you enlist into our service."' 

Zdckary. " What do you wish me to do.'" 

People. " We wish you to kill the people of Monterey." 

Zach. " What have they done .'" 

People. " Oh ! nothing ; only their existence is opposed to 
our interests." 

Zach. "They are,' then, innocent of all evil intentions and 
actions towards you.'" 

People. " Yes; they never injured us, and never intended 
to injure us." 

Zach. " Why, then, do you wish to kill them .'" 

People. " Simply and solely because they are in our way, 
and there is no other method to get rid of tiiem." 

Zach. " Would it be right to kill them :" 

People. " That is our atfair, not yours. We wish you to 
enlist to do our bidding, and kill wliom we wi^h, kiuut or 

WRONO." 

Zack. " But suppose I know them to be innocent; must I 
kill them.'" 

People. "Yes ; if we bid you." 

Zach. " But suppose I believe that to kill them would be 
MURDER ; must I do it .'" 

People. " Yes ; if we bid you kill them. We wish to en- 
list none into our service as soldiers who are not willing to 
swear by the great God that they will kill any and all whom 
we bid them kill, even though they believe it would he mur- 
der." 

Zach. " How many do you wish rae to kill ?" 

People. "No particular persons or number; but we wish 
to enlist you to butcher men by the day, till we have gained 
our end." 

Zach. "So, then, now I understand you. Youvvishmeto 
enlist into your service, to kill hwnan ftfings, nithoul regard 
to their ^lilt or innocence, at your Idililins, i""' for yovr bene- ■ 
fit. You wish me to swear by the Eternal that 1 will kill 
men. women, and uJiildren, at your discretion, even though 



I know thc'v are innocent, aud though I believe that to kill 
them would be murder'?" 

People. "Ye?; such is our wish." ' 

Zach. "But suppose I should enlist, and then should not 
be willins; to kill all whom you command me to kill; and 
suppose I should wish to leave your service?" 

People. "Once enlisted, you must do our bidding, or be 
killed yourself; and it' you attempt to leave our service with- 
out our consent, we shall shoot or hang you." 

Zach. " How much money will you give me.'" 

People. " Two hundred dollars a month." 

Zach. " Well, the ministers and churches say war is a 
riglit and Christian practice. If so, then it is right to enlist; 
and when enlisted, to go for my employers, ris.lit or wrong. 
So I am your man. Henceforth I am ready to kill, all you 
bid me kill, though I know them to be innocent, and though 
r believe it would be murder." 

People. "You are the man for us. 'Rough and Ke\dy' 
is your name henceforth. We have work on hand at this 
moment." 

Zarh. " Name it, and it is done." 

People. "There is a town in Mexico called Monterey. 
Go, slay its inhabitants, and destroy it." 

Zach. " Give me the means, and the deed is done." 

So the means are supplied by liis employers. Now, be- 
hold Zachary before the devoted town. It is Sunday. This 
is the day chosen by him to make the attack. See the scenes 
enacted by Zachary, the soldier. He is acting as the agent 
of twenty millions. Had he bombarded that city as the agent 
ottu'O — how had he been the execration of mankind ! 

I will not detain Senators by reading any more 
extracts. I did not know that the time for taking 
up the special order had passed, or I should not have 
trespassed so long on the time of the Senate. 

Several Senators. Go on. 

Mr. FOOTE. I will, then, if the Senate will bear 
with me, read a few additional paragraphs: 

Look at that nursery. See that mother watching her four 
little ones lovingly at play in one corner. Zachary dis- 
charges a gun loaded with grape-shot at them ; and in a 
moment tlieir limbs and bodies are torn to fragments, and 
the mother sits amid their mangled remains. In another 
nursery is an infant sleeping in the cradle ; the mother sits 
by it rocking and singing its lullaby. Zachary hurls a cannon 
ball at that mother and infant, and ti-ars them in pieces. 

Look into that dining room. There are a father and 
mother and five children at the dinner table. A ball thrown 
by Zachary enteus, and tlie father and children are torn and 
killed around the surviving mother. There is a school- 
house. In it are seventy-five childien with their teacher. 
Zachary throws a bomb-shcU among them. It explodes, 
and the torn limbs and dead bodies of fifty of those children 
are strewed about, and their teacher and companions are 
covered with their blood There is a daughter standins by 
her broken-hearted father to comfort and sustain him. 
Zachary hurls a cannon bail at her, and cuts her body in 
two, and there she lies a mangled corpse before her father. 

" For the love of-Heaven spare that h((U>:e!" cries a young 
man to Zachary, as he is aiming a deadly missile at a par- 
ticular dwelling. " I care not if every other house in 
TOWN IS blown to ATOMS — but do not destroy that one." 

Zachary. " What is your reason.''" 

Youn«rnan. " My betrothed lives there. She whom Hove 
as my own soul." 

Zachary. " All love and domestic affections must be for- 
gotten heie." 

Vouns, man. "But do spare that one. One of your own 
companions begs you to spare it." 

Zachiri). " (t is the biddins; and for the interest of our em- 
ployers that that house and all in it should l)e dcftroyed. 
We must go for our employers, RIGHT OR WRONG." 

Yo'ins,man. " O spare it ! To what dangers is she whom 
I love exposed ! Think of the agony I must feel to find her 
a mancled corpse !" 

Zachary. — " Youn'z man, you seem to care nothing about 
the other houses, and are willing to see them 'blown to 
atoms.' Yet every ball and bomb-shell we throw tears to 
pieces some wife or husband, some parent or child, some 
brother or sister, all of whom are objects of affection to 
• others, and their death causes as much agony to surviving 
relatives as the death of your betrothed would to you. She 
mu:-t die. Such is the bidding and pleasure of my employ- 
■ ers." 

A bomb-shell is aimed at the house; and in an instant it 
"is a heap of ruins. The shell conies into the parlor where 
the parents and their children arc assembled, and explodes. 



A ragged piece of iron strikes the young woman, and tears 
away her liCcld and shoulders. 

Says another eye-witness of the doings of Zachary: "It 
was an awful sight to look u| on the dead — some shot with 
cannon balls and some with small shot; some with their 
heath shot, off— some with their legs off— some with their 
bou-cls scattered on the ground.^' 

Says another eye-witness of another scene: "Bodies of 
Mexicans were lying all about in every direction — some with 
their heads entirely or partly shot off'; others without legs or 
arms ; others with their entrails torn out. I crept about on 
my hands and knees, and at every few paces I would come 
across dead bodies ; and at one place, I discovered the body 
of a beautiful Mexican girl STAKED through her heart." 

The abave is substantially a truthful narrative of deeds 
perpetrated by him and his men in Monterey, and other 
towns in Mexico, at the bidding and for the benefit of his 
religious, republican employers." 

Mr. CRITTENDEN. If the Senator will per- 
mit me, I would beg leave to submit to him whether 
it is best to detain the Senate by reading more of 
that pamphlet. Enough has been given to enable 
us to judge of its character. I will hear the Sena- 
tor with a great deal of pleasure, but I think he 
ought not to occupy the time of the Senate by read- 
ing pamphlets. 

Mr. FOOTE. I know that this thing is dis- 
gusting, but having the sanction of the Whigs of 
New England, I thought that it might be agreea- 
ble more or less to the appetites of some gentlemen 
here. I feel that perhaps I owe some apology for 
occupying the attention of the Senate so long. I 
do not charge the Whig party with this pamphlet, 
but I have quoted it in order to vindicate what has 
fallen from the Senator froin Kentucky in opposi- 
tion to the dangerous sentiments of the Senator 
from New Hampshire, presenting as it does es. 
striking illustration of the consequences to which 
such sentiments naturally lead. 

Mr. CRITTENDEN again rose. 

Mr. CASS. Is the Senator going to make any 
motion.' The Senator from Texas has the floor 
on the special order. 

Mr. CRITTENDEN. I will not detain the 
Senate. 

Mr. RUSK. So far as I am concerned, I de- 
sire to say, that I have great pleasure in asking 
the Senator from Kentucky to proceed. 

Mr. CRITTENDEN. I do not intend to pro- 
tract this debate, but I desire to acquit myself of 
the personality of which the honorable Senator 
from New Hainpshire seems to have considered 
me to be guilty. I did not mean to say, sir, that 
the gentleman was without patriotism, or without 
morality. No, sir, not at all. I meant only to con- 
test the proposition which he laid down, and on 
which his objections to this vofe of thanks rested, 
and on which they could alone stand. Itwas in ref- 
erence to that proposition, and' not the sincerity of 
the honorable gentleman, that my remarks were 
made; and it was very far from my intention, in- 
deed, to make any such charge as that he was 
wanting in morality or patriotism. The sentiments 
which the honorable gentleman entertained are of 
such a peculiar character, that one can hardly fall 
into the error of supposing that they are entertain- 
ed from selfish motives. The gentleman must be 
sincere, and I do not doubt that he is sincere; and 
I assure him, that no personality was intended by 
me. 

I am a little apprehensive that the Senator from 
Mississippi may have understood me as going a 
little further than I designed to be understood as 
going in relation to this war. I think I told you, aJ _ 



the commencement of my remarks, that I was not 
one of those who approved of tliis war — not at all. 
But I said that the war, by the act of Congress, 
had become a national war. It was war according 
to law; and I had supposed that the great principle 
of republican government consists in the combina- 
tion of the strength and power of the whole com- 
munity in executing the laws passed by the major- 
ity of that community, that I am as much bound 
to respect the law passed in reference to this war 
as I am in respect to any law that imposed duties 
or taxes, or regulated the conduct of citizens of the 
United States. With respect to any of those laws, 
the liberty of discussion, under the Constitution, 
and according to every principle of republican gov- 
ernment, is free and unlimited. It is upon that 
condition that every citizen of the republic agrees 
to conform himself to, and be governed by, the ma- 
jority, however repugnant to his own opinions 
may be the decisions of the majority. This free- 
dom of discussion is the ground on which each and 
every individual may infer on entering into the so- 
cial compact, that he may safely and cheerfully 
agree to obey whatever law the majority passes 
whilst discussion is left free; or, in the words of 
Mr. Jefferson, that error may be tolerated whilst 
reason is left free to combat it. That is the prin- 
ciple of republican government. I do not hold 
that I oppose the war because I discuss and ex- 
amine and reason, in order to prove to you 
that the law ought to be repealed or changed or 
modified, so as to put an end to this war. It is 
with respect to that law as it is in the case of 
every other law. Every constitutional law claims 
the obedience of every man, no matter whether it 
be according to his wishes or not. It claims his 
obedience. But it leaves him free to discuss it. 
It leaves him free to endeavor, in the exercise of 
all his constitutional rights, to have the law re- 
pealed, no matter whether it relates to peace or 
war; and the right is equally perfect in regard to 
the one as the other. Circumstances may mod- 
ify, the exigencies of the country may control, 
the exercise of this right; but Ijjs constitutional 
right as a man and a citizen is to discuss the law 
fully. He ought to do so, because he is bound to 
obey implicitly. That is my doctrine. I do not hold 
that because a man disapproves of this war and in 
that sense opposes it — that he is with one hand 
endeavoring to support the law as a national law, 
whilst with the other he exercises his right to put 
an end to that state of things, he makes an oppo- 
sition to the war, which in any true sense of it can 
be regarded as unpatriotic. Some gentlemen run 
into the idea — and it seems to me that my friend 
from Mississippi inclines to the belief— that any 
degree of disapprobation of the war, every species 
of opposition to it, betokens a want of patriotism 
or of courage, or of something that belongs to hon- 
orable and patriotic men. 

Mr. FOOTE. I thought that 1 used the most 
explicit language. I have uniformly used the same 
language, and it is now on record, upholding free- 
dom of debate and discussion. But I have said^ 
and repeat it now, that whenever speeches are 
made anywhere in the United States evidently 
intended to circulate in Mexico — calculated to en- 
courage the enemy of the country — those speeches 
are stamped with treachery to the country. I am 
not to be understood, however, as in the slightest 
degree trenching on the freedom of debate. The 



Senator from New Hampshire is bound to express 
his sentiments if he entertains them. I only de- 
plore his condition, being impelled by the peculiar 
character of his intellect to adopt such sentiments. 
I am not willing to shackle even him, certainly not 
any other person. But I see frequently newspaper 
articles which are intended to circulate in Mexico, 
giving "aid and comfort" to the enemy; and 
speeches have been made which we know to have 
had the same effect. All know this. It is a part 
of the history of the country, and I challenge de- 
nial of the statement that it is so. In my opinion, 
for making such speeches, the punishment of hang- 
ing, if the law allowed it, should be inflicted. I 
hope I am understood now. I hope the Senator 
from Kentucky will do me justice. I know it is 
one thing simply to declare that the war is unjust 
and to seek the repeal of the law declaring it, and 
another to become a traitor to the country, in a 
moral point of view, by such overt acts in favor 
of the enemy as those to which I have alluded. 
Let it also be understood that I charge nothing of 
the kind upon the Senator. 

Mr. CRITTENDEN. I regret that this debate 
has taken this excursory direction, passing entirely 
beyond the point to which I supposed it would be 
limited in the first instance, otherwise I should not 
have felt called upon to obtrude any remarks of 
mine upon the attention of the Senate. I believe 
that the honorable Senator is of too liberal a spirit 
himself lightly to impute to others any want of 
patriotism, much less to a great party like that of 
tlie Whigs. He disclaims any such imputation 
with respect to them, if I understood him. What, 
sir! do the Whig party want patriotism? and shall 
the Whig party, in retaliation, charge tlje Demo- 
cratic party with a want of patriotism ? Then 
who, in the name of all that is virtuous, has patri- 
otism in this wide republic? 

The gentleman imposes another limitation upon 
this riglit of discussion in relation to the war, 
which it seems to me cannot be maintained. I 
may speak the more freely on this subject, inas- 
much as that, though my opinions on the war 
have not been withheld, it has not been my lot to 
participate so largely in the discussion as many 
others have, and I doubt whether in all the archives 
of Mexico, from the fortress of San Juan de Ulua 
to the city of Mexico, one sentence, line, or word, 
of any poor remarks that ever I made here can be 
found. And I am equally well assured that no 
remarks of my Whig associates or Democratic 
associates have been made for any such purpose of 
encouragement to Mexico or Mexicans. These 
remarks have been made in the exercise of their 
constitutional rights here, for the benefit of our 
own country, by the discussion of a matter involv- 
ing the interests of our country. 

Mr. FOOTE. I am very sorry to interrupt the 
Senator. But I had no reference to speeches made 
here. I alluded to speeches made in various parts 
of the United States — deliberately made to crowds 
assemliled, for the purpose of being indoctrinated, 
and which the speaker knew would operate in 
Mexico, and therefore meriting all the denunci- 
ations which I heaped upon them; and I pnly 
regret that my powers of sarcasm are not ade- 
quate to the v/ork of stigmatizing them as they de- 
serve. 

Mr. CRITTENDEN. I accept the explanation 
of the gentleman. I thought he had reference to 



h 



speeches here and elsewhere. It seems that he had 
not reference to speeches here. Now, that might 
be his limitation of the doctrine; but since I am 
upon the subject, allow me to say, that I know 
well that that is not the limitation put by presses 
now advocating the doctrine. We are told that 
this war with Mexico has been inflamed — that the 
obstinacy of the Mexican people has been increased 
by their knowledge of what is said and done by 
Whigs, and Whig newspapers. That is boldly 
affirmed every day. The liberty of speech is cen- 
sured. We are told by these same presses, that 
instead of exercising the rights of honorable gen- 
tlemen, and those which appertain to the more 
dignified and important character of representa- 
tives, we ought to be silent in regard to a matter 
in which the interests of tiie country are concerned, 
and follow in mute submission, whatever is done 
by the Executive of the Government. 

Mr. FOOTE. If the Senator will allow me to 
interrupt him again for a moment, I would state 
that a distinguished member of the House of Rep- 
resentatives from the State of Kentucky has re- 
ceived a letter from General Marshall, stating the 
fact that we might have had a treaty of peace but 
for the speech of a distinguished citizen of Ken- 
tucky, with certain resolutions, which induced the 
leading men of Mexico to wheel about, and raised 
a universal expectation of a iironunciamento by 
which Mr. Polk would be turned out of the White 
House, and a certain distinguished gentlemen from 
Kentucky be brought in, from whom such a peace 
could be obtained as would accord with their no- 
tions of justice and humanity. I state this as a 
matter of fact. We all know that this kind of in- 



telligence circulates freely in Mexico. No man 
can deny it. I did not charge any bad intentions 
at all to the distinguished gentleman in Kentucky 
who made the speech, but the effect has been pro- 
duced by it which was predicted at the time by 
myself and thousands of others. 

Mr. CRITTENDEN. I do not doubt that such 
a letter had been written, and that such is the opin- 
ion entertained by the writer. The gentleman is 
well known, and with liim I have always sus- 
tained the most friendly relations; but, although 
I do not know what effect his military careej; may 
have had, his politics were of the severest and most 
heated cliaracter when he went to Mexico. I pre- 
sume he retains those opinions, and is therefore 
very ready, from his political bias, to place upon 
any act of the honorable gentleman alluded to — 
orffe of my most distinguished fellow-citizens, Mr. 
Clay — we need not conceal his name — an unfavor- 
able construction. It is quite likely that General 
Marshall may have entertained the opinion that 
we should have had a peace before now had it not 
been for Mr. Clay's speech; but I put it in all can- 
dor to the honorable Senator from Mississippi to 
say whether a speech delivered by Mr. Clay in 
November last in Kentucky has found such access 
to the mind of Mexico as to present 

Mr. FOOTE. I do believe that his magnetic 
influence may have been as great as that described. 
The Mexicans are a peculiar people — semi-bar- 
barous — accustomed to pronunciamentos, and, of 
course, judge our country by tlieir own. I judge, 
from the evidence before me, that they expect a 
pronunciamento here, which I think, though, they 
will expect a long time before it will occur. 



APPENDIX. 



The readers of the above Speech are invited to 
examine several miscellaneous matters, thrown 
together in this brief appendix, which will be found 
elucidatory and more or less corroborative of the 
speech itself. 

Dr. Lieher's definition of a Traitor. 

Dr. Lieber, in his great work on Ethics, thus 
describes the duty of a citizen to his government: 

" Remember that it, is your state, your nation, 
that declares and fights out the war, not this or 
that minister; remember that the honor and history 
of your country are engaged; that however con- 
scientious you be in your opposition, you may err 
after all; that you cannot oppose the administra- 
tion, without strengthening the enemy, who has 
unsheathed his sword against your kindred. A 
traitor is he who would not gladly defend his own 
country. If an opposition feels really and con- 
scientiously convinced that the war is inexpedient, 
let them follow the old Roman rule — ' treat after 
victory, but fight until then.' " 

Extract from Colonel Wynkoop's Letter. 
*' We, HERE, can see no difference between the 
men who in 1776 succored the British, and those 
who in 1847 gave arguments and sympathy to the 
Mexicans. This kind of language, from a man 
who came into this campaign a Whig in policy, 
may sound strange to you, but I have again and 



again been compelled to listen to and to suffer that 
which would hcKve changed the disposition and 
alienated the affections of the most determined 
partisan. Even now, I do not object to the lead- 
ing and main principles of my old party, so much 
as I curse and deprecate the tone of its acknowl- 
edged leaders and supporters. If there is any 
reason which will prevent General Scott from 
effecting an honorable peace, commanding, as he 
does, the whole city of the Aztecs, with his pow- 
erful 'nattery,it is the spirit of treason which I un- 
hesitatingly say is promulgated by the leading 
Whig journals at home. In a sortie upon some 
ladrones at Jalapa, a short time since, I possessed 
myself of all the late newspaper publications in 
that place, and upon examining them, I find that, in 
that place, same as in Mexico, the strongest argu- 
ments published against our army are selections 
from Whig papers in the United States. I send 
you a late copy of the ' Boletin de Noticias,' in 
which you will perceive that the first article is an 
extract from the National Intellisjencer. 

« Your friend, F. M. WYNKOOP." 

Extract from the Speech of General Pierce, delivered 
at Concord, J^ew Hampshire, on the 2dth of Jan- 
uary. 
" He was here, not to discuss any matter in 

controversy, but to meet his friends. Still, the 



subject of tlic war was necessarily presented to 
their consideration by llie occasion. Before en- 
gaging; in it, it was his belief that it was irresist- 
ibly forced upon us. If he had ever doubted be- 
fore, conversation with the most intelligent men in 
Mexico would have confirmed him in the opinion, 
that after the annexation of Texas, it was una- 
voidable on our part. Conquest was evidently 
neither the cause nor the objcet of the war, and yet 
he was constrained to say, that there had seemed 
to be, in the obstinacy of ihe Mexicans, the uni- 
form success of our arms, and the present state of 
our relations with that country, something like 
the irresistible force of destiny. For one, it had 
been, and still was, his hope that a peace, just and 
honorable to both nations, might be in some way 
achieved. The obstacles to such a consumma- 
tion, as he apprehended, had arisen from unex- 
pected sources. There was, unquestionably, in 
Mexico a formidable and intelligent party, who 
had resisted, and would resist, negotiations so long 
as they could hope, through our army, to escape 
from the military misrule under which that coun- 
try had literally groaned for the last twenty years. 
Again, the party desiring peace, and sincerely 
striving for it, had been embarrassed and weak- 
ened, if not discouraged, by the course of things 
here. President Herrera and the Mexican Con- 
gress, who were understood to be in favor of 
peace, might be so weakened by the declarations 
of our own countrymen, that they would not dare 
to conclude a peace. When at the camp near Ja- 
lapa, a paper published in that city icas brought to 
him, the ichole of the first page of which, and a part 
of the second, icas filled with extracts from the Jlmeri- 
can press, and from speeches made in this country, 
which induced the editors to say, that while the intelli- 
gent and virtuous portion of the people ofjforth ^imer- 
ica held such sentiments, notlUng remained for them to 
add in justification of tlieir course towards the United 
States. On the same day that he read the bitter 
•denunciations of the war, and all connected with 
it, from newspaper articles and speeches made at 
hom6, he saw posted by the way side, and upon 
the ranches, the proclamation of General Salas to 
the guerrillas, with the watchword of ' Death to 
Yankees, without mercy!' Thus, with commu- 
nication cut off from the coast, with no knowledge 
of the situation of the army in the interior, with 
daily rumors of strong forces to obstruct their 
march, was there furnished from our own country 
food which fed the ferocity that pursued his com- 
mand at every turn. The effect it was calculated 
to produce upon the Mexican Government and 



people was sufficiently obvious. What was the 
feeling inspired in his own command, it was un- 
necessary to say. However lightly their position 
might be regarded at home, they knew that there 
was but one course, and that was to go forward. 
7/1 the office of the Secretary of State, in the city of 
jMexico, a large collection of extracts from newspapers 
and speeches of our own countrymen were found filed 
away in the pigeon holes, and had been used in pre- 
paring proclamalions to inflame the Mexican popula- 
tion. He brought no accusation against any party 
or any man. Men of all parties in this country 
exercised their own judgment, and expressed their 
own opinion, in their own way; and so he trusted 
it would ever be; but he could not but regard it as 
most unfortunate that upon a great question, in- 
volving the blood of our countrymen, and so 
deeply and vitally the interests of the nation, we 
could not present a united front. If we could have 
done so, he firmly believed that months ago there 
would have been a peace, just and honorable to 
both nations. If we could do so now, he thought 
the skies were bright and promising. General 
Pierce, after again thanking the audience for their 
kind reception, sat down amid repeated and enthu- 
siastic cheering." 

Extract from a xoork enlilled " Adventures in Mexi- 
co,'" by C. DoNNAVAN. 
" But the most difficult matter of comprehension 
to the editor, was how Whig generals should be 
placed at the head of the American army, while 
the Administration was opposed to the Whigs. 
AikI when Corwin's speech against the war was 
received through ' El Monitor,' from the city of 
Mexico, we were asked if Seiior Corwin would 
not immediately raise a company of volunteers, 
issue a pronunciamento, and attack the President! 
The editor was delighted with the speech, and re- 
published it, by inserting some two columns daily. 
He esteemed Senor Corwin as far superior to Seiior 
Polk, in sagacity and eloquence. Bat, poor fel- 
low, he knows but little of the enlightened state 
of parties in this country, where officials can abuse 
each other with impunity, and where greater revo- 
lutions have been consummated by the pen, than 
were ever accomplished by the sword." 

These extracts, with the declarations of such 
personages as Twiggs, Morgan, and Doniphan, 
will be acknowledged by posterity at least, and 
perchance by some of the present generation too, 
to make out the case of moral treason pretty satis- 
factorily. 



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